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Bulldog swim teams topple GV, struggle at county meet

A Turlock swimmer flies through the water during the Bulldogs' win against Golden Valley on Friday.

Turlock High’s boys and girls swim teams dominated Golden Valley on Friday. The Bulldogs hosted the Cougars with the boys winning 103-73 and the girls taking a 93-86 victory.

“I was really proud of these guys,” Turlock’s boys coach Erick Richter said. “They were pumped and I told them to go out and work on their personal best. We knew Golden Valley was good, but we did what we had to do.”

On Friday, the Turlock girls had a handful of first place finishes. Rebekah Groteguth placed first in the 50 and 100 meter freestyle for Turlock. Roxy Abrams finished first in the 100 meter breast stroke (qualified for sections). Lucy Deitz placed first in the 500 meter freestyle (freshman, qualified for JV sections). The 200 meter freestyle relay team took first (Anna Viss, Paige Aguilar, Abbey Johnson, Groteguth). The 400 meter relay team also placed first (Viss, Abrams, Groteguth, and Sarah Philips).

“We were trying to get as many checks in the win column as we can,” said girls swimming coach Sonja Raynes. “We’ve already qualified some relays for sections, so right now we are trying to get some individual PRs and qualifiers.”

The Bulldogs then returned the day after at Johansen High for the annual Stanislaus County Championships. The boys struggled as they placed in eighth while the girls finished in sixth place out of 19 school attendees.

The boys had no top three finishers for any of the individual races, however, they managed to end the day in the top half of the list of teams despite a smaller roster.

“We are a small team, and everyone knew that,” boys coach Erick Richter said. “I just told them to go out there and work on getting the best times. Everyone was on top of their game and we accomplished what we could.”

Turlock’s girls struggled as they only had one swimmer finish in the top three of any individual event — Alex Schoeffling who placed second in diving with a score of 288.60.

“Well, we did not have a great meet at all,” Raynes said about her team's performance. “We had prom the night before… so yeah… we probably did not do too well because of that.”

Turlock will host Pitman High for the final individual meet of this season at 3 p.m. Friday.